Xbox One support isn't ending with Scorpio, Phil Spencer re-confirms

Worrying about whether a game console will be obsolete once its successor releases sucks. With the Microsoft’s Project Scorpio just around the corner, a few fans are worried they might not have any new games to play before too long. One fan hit up Xbox boss Phil Spencer on Twitter, who took a moment to reassure them that that’s simply not the case:

It’s happened before, right?

When a new game system comes out, it’s valid to worry that your current system will see support dwindle and disappear. That’s how it’s always been in the past. Systems like the first Xbox and the Wii saw games dry up almost immediately once their younger siblings were on shelves. These new consoles, though, are a bit different. They’re not replacements – they’re upgrades. Both the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio have clear mandates that the existing round of consoles must continue to receive support. The PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio are more similar to their predecessors than, really, any home console and its previous model ever. There’s no reason, other than greed, that they wouldn’t be supported.

Instead, both companies are looking to extend the lives of their systems without shortening the lives of their old ones.

Systems are powerful enough at this point that super-specialized game hardware isn’t as beneficial as it once was. Instead, what we get is closer to a PC, but still heavily optimized for games and for ease-of-use. Just the same way that old games work on newer PCs and new games have lower settings to work on older PCs, that’ll be the case with these games. Eventually, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will fall off the bottom, but by that time the systems will likely be six or more years old.

As for the Scorpio itself, we’re looking forward to seeing more of that at this year’s E3 coming up in June.